NEW DELHI, 21 Mar: Lok Sabha member Tapir Gao hailed road construction under the Modi government and said that top car companies, including Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes and Lamborghini, now participate in car rallies because of good roads in the state.
“The road network has even reached Kalapani (in Uttarakhand). Like Spiderman’s web, Nitin Gadkari too is putting in place a network of road connectivity,” Gao said, participating in a discussion on the ‘demand for grants of
ministry of road transport & highways’ for 2022-23 in Parliament on Monday.
Several opposition leaders also praised the work of Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari but flagged some concerns on issues such as quality of roads and their maintenance, and alleged lack of transparency in toll collection.
Congress Lok Sabha member MK Vishnu Prasad said that the previous UPA governments laid the foundation of developing road connectivity in the country, which has led to its road network becoming the second largest globally.
“The treasury benches are very proud of the 63.5 lakh km of road coverage, which is the second longest globally after the US. But this expansion did not happen overnight. It was the previous Congress governments under (Jawaharlal) Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, which laid the foundation and that is why today India has the second largest road network,” he said.
Questioning the 68 percent hike in allocation to the road transport & highways ministry for the next fiscal, Prasad said the quality of road is pathetic and only Rs 356 crores has been allocated towards road safety.
A number of opposition MPs called for speeding up of existing projects. (PTI)
